Defamiliarization is the artistic technique of forcing the audience to see common things in an unfamiliar way, in order to enhance perception of the familiar. A basic satirical tactic, it is a central concept of 20th century art, ranging over movements including Dadaism, postmodernism, and science fiction. A fine example is Pepe le Pew's phrase "My sweet peanut of brittle".
Defamiliarization was developed in the mid-20th century by Viktor Shklovsky, who is most often associated with Russian Formalism.
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